Helen's Famous Travel Blogs

Port Elizabeth, South Africa – Wednesday 7th January 2015

Today we arrived at Port Elizabeth which is one of the largest cities in South Africa and lies 770 kilometres east of Cape Town. It offers visitors a choice of stunning beaches, award winning wildlife destinations and lots of cultural museums and memorials.

Lots of our fellow cruisers went ashore to visit the game parks but as we had already visited the Pumba game reserve two years ago we decided to take the shuttle bus to The Boardwalk Entertainment Complex about fifteen minutes away.

Two Old Dogs, A Statue & A Hunk!!

We made our way through the shopping mall and found ourselves opposite one of the best beaches we have seen in South Africa. Needless to say we were soon paddling in the cool seawater which was a relief from the hot morning sun.

As we hadn’t brought swimmers we were soon back on board for a refreshing swim in our beach-mode pool and the “obligatory” noon beer!!

We should have been leaving Port Elizabeth at 1800 hours but there was a ship wide message from the captain saying we were unable to depart due to 40 knot winds from the east which had closed the port.

He said we would be unable to set sail until the winds dropped below 30 knots. Although we were told this would probably not be until 2100 hours we did manage to get away at 1930 hours.

We were all expecting a rocky ride that evening and throughout the night but surprisingly we hardly felt a thing.